101+ Inspiring Walt Disney Quotes About Dreams, Family, and Magic

Do you want to get inspired? Walt Disney’s quotes are invaluable words from the man who dreamed of nothing but true happiness for everyone worldwide. 

Reading Walt Disney quotes feels like sitting in a room across from the man himself, listening to words meant to encourage us through life. In a sense, he helped raise children of the world through his films, instilling values like kindness, patience, and hope through entertainment.

Imparting wisdom as much as he could, Walt Disney quotes are far more than just pick-me-uppers to read before starting the day. These are all from personal life lessons that helped him succeed against the harshness of those times, including two world wars and the extremes of being a pioneer of his craft.

Would you like to know what Walt Disney was like before and after he became famous? Which Walt Disney quotes do you find most inspiring?

Who Is Walt Disney?

Walter Elias Disney was born on December 5, 1901, in Chicago. Even as a boy, Walt loved to draw. He practiced by copying the cartoon skit printed in his father’s newspaper. In 1905 their family first moved to Marceline, Missouri, to start a life on a farm. But after his father got sick with typhoid, farming was no longer an option. The family sold their house and moved to Kansas.

In Kansas, Walt became good friends with Walter Pfeiffer, a boy from a family of vaudeville and silent theater fans. After sharing their interest with young Walter Disney, he too became a fan and would re-enact the films he’s seen together with his friend. During this same time, his father also allowed him to attend art classes despite their limited financial resources. With his love for films and passion for drawing, Walt would set up his first company, Laugh-O-gram Films Studio, in a few years. 

Walt Disney’s Career

In 1922, Walt founded Laugh-O-gram Films studio with Ub Iwerks, his friend and a talented animator. They signed a contract with Pictorial Clubs Inc. worth $11,100. However, Pictorial Clubs Inc. closed even before they could pay Laugh-O-gram. Out of the total amount, Walt only received $100 for their services. 

Instead of becoming extra cautious, Walt Disney went all out on an ambitious project called Alice’s Wonderland, putting a real-life person into an animated world. It was the first animated film of its kind, and it looked very promising, but the company went broke trying to produce the movie.

Walt Disney wanted to start a new career as a film director, but he was turned down by every studio he knocked on. He took a gamble by sending the unfinished print of Alice’s Wonderland to a New York distributor and got an offer. Walt gathers his crew from Kansas to work on the project with him.

After Alice’s Wonderland, Walt Disney continued to come up with ideas. Innovative films like Steamboat Willie led to the production of his first feature animation in technicolor, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

The success gave Walt the resources to build Disney Studios, the place where the films Three Little Pigs, Pinocchio, and Bambi were created. Soon after, Disney Studios also got involved in live-action.

As involved as he was at work, Walt Disney held family above all else. He was a doting father to his children and enjoyed his time at home. The very concept of Disneyland was born from his desire for every parent to experience the same happiness he does with his family. On July 17, 1955, Walt opened the gates of Disneyland to the people.

He oversaw everything, not from a corporate standpoint, but according to how he felt it should be. Making sure that every experience was a learning, inspirational adventure for everyone.

Two years after Mary Poppins was released, Walt Disney passed away at the age of 65 on December 15, 1966.

101 Most Inspiring Walt Disney Quotes

Walt Disney’s career was riddled with failures right in the beginning, but like he said, “The difference between winning and losing is most often not quitting.” If his father can build beautiful houses with his bare hands for their family and other people, then he should at least be able to lay the foundations of his own future.

Walt Disney was a trendsetter and an innovator, and a significant part of his success was believing that he had to be genuine in order to give life to his characters. At the same time, he always encouraged everyone to believe and have dreams because success has to start somewhere.

Walt Disney Quotes About Life

• “Happiness is a state of mind. It’s just according to the way you look at things.”
• “I always like to look on the optimistic side of life, but I am realistic enough to know that life is a complex matter.”
• “All the adversity I’ve had in my life, all my troubles and obstacles, have strengthened me… You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you.”
• “All you’ve got to do is own up to your ignorance honestly, and you’ll find people who are eager to fill your head with information.”
• “When people laugh at Mickey Mouse, it’s because he’s so human; and that is the secret of his popularity.”
• “I have been up against tough competition all my life. I wouldn’t know how to get along without it.”
• “In bad times and in good, I’ve never lost my sense of zest for life.”
• “Never get bored or cynical. Yesterday is a thing of the past.”
• “You reach a point where you don’t work for money.”
• “Why worry? If you’ve done the very best you can, worrying won’t make it any better.”
• “Laughter is America’s most important export.”
• “For every laugh, there should be a tear.”
• “Do what you do so well that they will want to see it again and bring their friends.”
• “Life is composed of lights and shadows, and we would be untruthful, insincere, and saccharine if we tried to pretend there were no shadows.”

Walt Disney Quotes About Family

• “The most important thing is family.”
• “If you can keep the family together — and that’s the backbone of our whole business, catering to families — that’s what we hope to do.”
• “A man should never neglect his family for business.”
• “The most important thing brought about in the past quarter century of motion-picture history is the recognition that amusement, recreation, mass diversion, is no longer a dispensable luxury. Family fun is as necessary to modern living as a kitchen refrigerator.”
• “It’s a mistake not to give people a chance to learn to depend on themselves while they are young.”

Walt Disney’s Quotes About The Future

• “I believe in being an innovator.”
• “To the youngsters of today, I say believe in the future, the world is getting better; there still is plenty of opportunity.”
• “Think beyond your lifetime if you want to do something truly great.”
• “We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things because we’re curious, and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.”
• “Times and conditions change so rapidly that we must keep our aim constantly focused on the future.”
• “A person should set his goals as early as he can and devote all his energy and talent to getting there. With enough effort, he may achieve it. Or he may find something that is even more rewarding. But in the end, no matter what the outcome, he will know he has been alive.”

Walt Disney Quotes About Success

• “First, think. Second, believe. Third, dream. And finally, dare.”
• “The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.”
• “When you believe in a thing, believe in it all the way, implicitly and unquestionably.”
• “Everyone falls down. Getting back up is how you learn how to walk.”
• “Of all the things I’ve done, the most vital is coordinating those who work with me and aiming their efforts at a certain goal.”
• “Most of my life, I have done what I wanted to do. I have had fun on the job.”
• “All the adversity I’ve had in my life, all my troubles and obstacles, have strengthened me… You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you.”
• “Somehow, I can’t believe that there are any heights that can’t be scaled by a man who knows the secrets of making dreams come true. This special secret, it seems to me, can be summarized in four Cs. They are curiosity, confidence, courage, and constancy.”
• “I do not like to repeat successes, I like to go on to other things.”
• “The difference in winning and losing is most often not quitting.”
• “When I was a kid, a book I read advised young artists to be themselves. That decided it for me. I was a corny kind of guy, so I went in for corn.”
• “I’d say it’s been my biggest problem all my life… it’s money. It takes a lot of money to make these dreams come true.”
• “Whatever you do, do it well.”
• “A person should set his goals as early as he can and devote all his energy and talent to getting there. With enough effort, he may achieve it. Or he may find something that is even more rewarding. But in the end, no matter what the outcome, he will know he has been alive.”
• “People often ask me if I know the secret of success and if I could tell others how to make their dreams come true. My answer is, you do it by working.”
• “Get a good idea and stay with it. Dog it, and work at it until it’s done right.”
• “Do a good job. You don’t have to worry about the money; it will take care of itself. Just do your best work – then try to trump it.”

Walt Disney Quotes About Dreams

• “If you can dream it, you can do it.”
• “All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them.”
• “If you can visualize it, if you can dream it, there’s some way to do it.”
• “You can design and create and build the most wonderful place in the world. But it takes people to make the dream a reality.” 
• “I dream, I test my dreams against my beliefs, I dare to take risks, and I execute my vision to make those dreams come true.”
• Dreams, ideas, and plans not only are an escape, but they give me purpose, a reason to hang on.
• “The era we are living in today is a dream of coming true.”

Walt Disney Quotes About Imagination

• “There is more treasure in books than in all the pirate’s loot on Treasure Island.”
• “Ideas come from curiosity.”
• “That’s what we storytellers do. We restore order with imagination. We instill hope again and again and again.” 
• “Our greatest natural resource is the minds of our children.”
• “When you’re curious, you find lots of interesting things to do.”
• “Money doesn’t excite me – my ideas excite me.”

Walt Disney Quotes About Magic

• “We create happiness.”
• “Fantasy and reality often overlap.”
• “A good story can take you on a fantastic journey.”
• “Fantasy, if it’s really convincing, can’t become dated for the simple reason that it represents a flight into a dimension that lies beyond the reach of time.”
• “Here you leave today and enter the world of yesterday, tomorrow, and fantasy.”

Walt Disney Quotes About Love

• “There is great comfort and inspiration in the feeling of close human relationships and its bearing on our mutual fortunes – a powerful force to overcome the “tough breaks” which are certain to come to most of us from time to time.”
• “The greatest moments in life are not concerned with selfish achievements but rather with the things we do for the people we love and esteem.”
• “The more you like yourself, the less you are like anyone else, which makes you unique.”
• “I love Mickey Mouse more than any woman I have ever known.”
• “I have never been interested in personal gain or profit. This business and this studio have been my entire life.”

Walt Disney Quotes About Growing Up

• “The worst of us is not without innocence, although buried deeply it might be.”
• “That’s the real problem with the world, too many people grow up. They forget.”
• “I do not make films primarily for children. I make them for the child in all of us, whether he be six or sixty. Call the child innocence.”
• “Movies can and do have tremendous influence in shaping young lives in the realm of entertainment towards the ideals and objectives of normal adulthood.”
• “Who says we have to grow up?”
• “Adults are only kids grown up.”
• “Childishness? I think it’s the equivalent of never losing your sense of humor. I mean, there’s a certain something that you retain. It’s the equivalent of not getting so stuffy that you can’t laugh at others.”
• “All right. I’m corny. But I think there’s just about a hundred and forty million people in this country that are just as corny as I am.”
• “Adults are interested if you don’t play down to the little 2 or 3-year-olds or talk down. I don’t believe in talking down to children. I don’t believe in talking down to any certain segment. I like to kind of just talk in a general way to the audience. Children are always reaching.”
• “The worst of us is not without innocence, although buried deeply it might be.”
• “Every child is born blessed with a vivid imagination. But just as a muscle grows flabby with disuse, so the bright imagination of a child pales in later years if he ceases to exercise it.”

Walt Disney Quotes From Disney Movies

• “You’re braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.”– Christopher Robin in Winnie the Pooh
• “Don’t just fly, soar.” – Dumbo
• “Nothing’s impossible.”– The Doorknob in Alice in Wonderland
• “No matter how your heart is grieving, if you keep on believing, the dream that you wish will come true.”– Cinderella in Cinderella
• “The very things that hold you down are going to lift you up.” – Timothy Q. Mouse in Dumbo
• “The past can hurt. But the way I see it, you can either run from it, or learn from it.”– Rafiki in The Lion King
• “Listen with your heart, you will understand.”– Grandmother Willow in Pocahontas
• “We didn’t set out to be superheroes. But sometimes life doesn’t go the way you planned.”– Hiro in Big Hero 6
• “Childhood slips like sand through a sieve, and all too soon they’ve up and grown, and then they’ve flown.” – Mary Poppins
• “Because when I look at you, I can feel it. And I look at you, and I’m home.”– Dory in Finding Nemo
• “The past can hurt. But the way I see it, you can either run from it, or learn from it.”– Rafiki in The Lion King
• “The problem is not the problem. The problem is your attitude about the problem.” – Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean
• “If you don’t know where you want to go, then it doesn’t matter which path you take.” – The Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland
• “All it takes is faith and trust. And a little bit of pixie dust.” – Peter Pan in Peter Pan
• “Do not be fooled by its commonplace appearance. Like so many things, it is not what is outside, but what is inside that counts.”– The Merchant in Aladdin
• “You must be imaginative, strong-hearted. You must try things that may not work, and you must not let anyone define your limits because of where you come from. Your only limit is your soul.”– Auguste Gusteau in Ratatouille
• “Even miracles take a little time.” – Fairy Godmother from Cinderella

Walt Disney Quotes About Disneyland

• “We believed in our idea – a family park where parents and children could have fun- together.”
• “I don’t want the public to see the world they live in while they’re in the Park (Disneyland). I want to feel they’re in another world.”
• “I am interested in entertaining people, in bringing pleasure, particularly laughter, to others, rather than being concerned with ‘expressing’ myself with obscure creative impressions.”
• “Disneyland is a work of love. We didn’t go into Disneyland just with the idea of making money.”
• “Disneyland will never be completed. It will continue to grow as long as there is imagination left in the world.”
• “I could never convince the financiers that Disneyland was feasible because dreams offer too little collateral.”
• “I would rather entertain and hope that people learned something than educate people and hope they were entertained.”
• “To all who come to this happy place, welcome. Disneyland is your land. Here, age relives fond memories of the past…and here, youth may savor the challenge and promise of the future. Disneyland is dedicated to the ideals, the dreams, and the hard facts that have created America…with the hope that it will be a source of joy and inspiration to all the world.”

Fun Facts About Walt Disney

• Walt Disney was the original voice of Mickey Mouse.
• Initially, Mickey Mouse was a flop. People didn’t like the character very much, so Walt decided not to release the film. It got him plotting for an idea on how to change people’s minds. The answer was sound.
• Walt Disney produced a cartoon with fully synchronized sound; the elements were performed on cue and recorded alongside a rolling film. He did this to attract distributors for his, then, new character Mickey Mouse and improve its popularity. What he didn’t mean to do was set the bar a little too high for other film producers to follow. 
• Walt Disney wasn’t the first to come up with the idea of putting color into an animated movie, but he was the first to consider it and actually pull it off. In 1937, the film Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs was first released just a few days before Christmas.
• The movie Fantasia’s total budget was $2M. Almost $500,000 was spent on music because he got Leopold Stokowski to conduct and arrange classical music for the soundtrack.
• As a child, Walt Disney loved trains. He would come rushing to the tracks the moment he heard it whistling from a distance. He was obsessed with model trains as an adult. Walt had to convince his wife to let him build train tracks around her flower beds so he could play with his toys.
• He understood the kind of discerning society they had, so he came up with a plan to provide a place where adults could forget about everything else and enjoy time with their children. This concept became Disneyland. 
• It wasn’t Darth Vader who first pulled the “I am your father” line. In the movie Bambi, Walt changed the original idea of Bambi finding his mother’s lifeless form to bumping into the Great Prince of The Forest, then followed by a line, “Your mother can’t be with you anymore. Come, my son”. Though all the other animals called him “Young Prince” the moment he was born, Bambi was never told who his father was. Not even after meeting the Great Prince at the meadows.
• Chili and beans were Walt Disney’s favorite comfort food. During his travels, he’s sure to have a few cans of chili and beans in his luggage and prefers to dine on those than gourmet food.
• He changed his date of birth to a year earlier so he could join the Red Cross. Walt Disney was 16 years old when he was stationed in France as an ambulance driver. 

All in All – Walt Disney Quotes

Walt Disney was a bit of an introvert; a ticklish point for his crew was when he almost regretted coming up with the idea of producing “live-action” episodes; they gave him no other choice but to host it himself. But he was a clever man who wanted to take everyone on an adventure through his storytelling. He managed to do this by creating a persona in every one of his animated films.

He was a man who kept repeating words of encouragement to the generations that followed his time by shining the spotlight on the magical films he created. Mary Poppins was the last film he oversaw before passing away, as if saying it was his time to go and hoping we learned something. When it was our turn to inspire the younger people, we could always rely on Walt Disney quotes for guidance.

“I only hope that we don’t lose sight of one thing – that it was all started by a mouse.”